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Death
The is one of the six magical Realms in Master of Magic. It combines the armies of the Undead with a slew of spells that weaken enemy units and entire economies, making it harder for the enemy to fight at all. The Death Realm specializes in Cursing enemy assets, and has far more spells of this type than any other realm. Its creatures are all Undead, an attribute that makes them very powerful and resilient, but incapable of healing. They tend to be cheap and plentiful however - overwhelming the enemy with sheer numbers. The Death Realm relies on weakening the enemy, rather than strengthening itself, and often sacrifices its own strength to acquire greater gains in the long run. It is also capable of stealing the enemy's strength to bolster itself. The Death Realm is strongly opposed to the Realm, and may be either particularly effective against it or particularly vulnerable to it, depending on the circumstances. The Death Realm is associated with the color black (or purple), and the concepts of darkness, disease, corruption, terror, and unholy sacrifice. It is often marked with the symbol, both in-game and on this Wiki. The familiar associated with the Death Realm is the cat, seen at the top of this page. Overview The concentrates on combative spells to raise undead armies, curse and wither enemy forces, and gnaw away at rival empires. This color is so strongly antithetical to life magic that wizards are barred from owning Spellbooks of both types. Death features Combat Instants with lingering effects that are either strong on their own or have synergy with other forms of attack, but using them repeatedly is extremely costly. The same goes for its line of big-ticket Town Curses. On harder difficulty settings, players find that these spells seem to get lost amid the AI's immense statistical advantages, though on the same token, AI-controlled black wizards can cause misery to the human player with them and are high-priority foes. This realm shows its true quality for us through its Fantastic Units, which are exceedingly cost-effective either by way of being cheap themselves or by turning their victims into Undead under the wizard's control. Raised en masse, undead Normal Units are a powerful economic and military asset. __TOC__ Description Master of Magic's in-game documentation alludes to the existence of the Death Realm. This would be the underworld, a dark plane nestled deep below the realities of Arcanus and Myrror, populated by demons and lost souls. It is also certain from in-game evidence that a pantheon of evil gods exist here, who traffic in bargains and sacrifice. While this plane cannot be entered and explored, it is the source of all black magic channeled by spellcasters, and home to all Fantastic creatures of Death. A spellcaster proficient in Death magic may bind these creatures to his will. Revenants can also be assembled by necromancy, a branch of the realm concerned with putting mortal husks back into active service. When destroyed, these beings plunge back into the Death Realm or into oblivion. The realm of the dead actively defies mortal understanding and prevents certain mysteries of the cosmos from being uncovered. Its magic governs the binding and purging of souls in containers, and the evocation of darkness, nightmares, and life-draining energy. Despite its key role in the cosmology of the game, hands-on study of Death Magic likely involves a great deal of cruel experimentation and is only practiced beyond the fringes of civil society, by wizards and cabalists. ;Familiar :A wizard with mainly Death spellbooks will take a Greymalkin, literally a "dark cat," as a familiar. These creatures were the subject of ominous superstitions in medieval Europe, acting as companions and spiritual guides for witches, and their sightings were taken to mean that evil events and witchcraft were afoot. Realm Details Death has 10 spells per degree of Spell Rarity, totaling 40 spells with a cumulative research cost of . Each member holds a discrete cost increment along the spectrum between (Skeletons) and (Demon Lord). While the majority of its spells are for direct use against enemies, Death magic also has a strong suite of summons and a branch of unique effects concerned with Undeath. List of Death Spells Rival Wizards When the world is generated, computer-controlled wizards each make a lottery-ball style roll for Personality and Objective. These traits modify the wizard's behavior, giving them some hard-to-resist compulsions and adding flavor to the match. If the wizard's shelf is stocked primarily with , this realm will convey influence on the rolls. In cases where spellbook ranks are tied, and the game needs to decide which realm conveys influence, precedence descends in this order: : Therefore, a default split-profile wizard like Sharee ( ) will take a personality and objective corresponding to probabilities dictated by her chaos ranks, not her death ones, pending even further modification by Conjurer. Dominant Death ranks drive the wizard towards a Personality of either "Ruthless" or "Maniacal," and an Objective of either "Militarist" or "Expansionist" (but will not guarantee these traits). The table below shows the chances each character trait has of appearing on a Death wizard, before accounting for the influence of Retorts. ;Ruthless :On the diplomatic scale of 100 to -100, a "Ruthless" wizard has a -30 Core Reaction to all of the other wizards, including the human player, and the chance this wizard will elect to perform hostile actions (overland spells and armed assaults) is increased by 30 percentage points. As all diplomatic standings gravitate towards the core reaction at a speed of 1 point per turn, this wizard will declare war unless steadily appeased. ;Maniacal :All diplomatic gains are halved, and losses are doubled. The "Maniacal" wizard also has a -50 Core Reaction to other wizards, and the chance this wizard will elect to perform hostile actions against them is increased by 50 percentage points. More than simply hating their rivals, this type of wizard is dedicated to attacking everything in sight, constantly, and cultivating a friendship with them will prove both expensive and temporary. ;Expansionist :An "Expansionist" wizard has double the chance of building Settlers, and will attempt to sprawl across every available piece of land. ;Militarist :A "Militarist" has double the chance of training military units and casting summoning spells. Due to their reduced likelihood of constructing new buildings and making alternative spell choices, these units are likely to be primitive and unbuffed, but there will be a ton of them. If left unchecked, Black wizards will gather up large armies of death creatures, and hit rivals with crippling Town Curses, Warp their magic nodes, and eventually inflict enormous, permanent damage with Cruel Unminding. This last spell should absolutely not fall into your enemy's repertoire and could be a deadline by which you would want to banish a death wizard from the planes. Black Diplomacy Modifiers Rival wizards make the following initial adjustments to their Core Reaction to a Death wizard (human or otherwise): Example interactions: :Example 1: Tlaloc and Kali have a mutual Core Reaction adjustment of -15 ( ) :Example 2: Merlin and Rjak have a mutual Core Reaction adjustment of -70 ( & ) :Example 3: Tlaloc and Rjak have a mutual Core Reaction adjustment of -27 ( ) Fantastic Units The has ten native Fantastic Creature types, and offers as many unique ways of spawning Death units. Seven of the creatures are bona-fide members of the Death spell repertoire: Skeletons, Ghouls, the Night Stalker, Shadow Demons, Wraiths, Death Knights, and the Demon Lord. Ghouls, Wraiths, and Death Knights are highly-effective vanguard units in their time frames, able to create Undead (discussed below). Being invisible, Night Stalkers can scout most lairs and pick targets for their Death Gaze. Zombies can be assembled under a wizard's control only under the global spell Zombie Mastery. These are low-tier units, like Skeletons. Both types of creatures can be massed for suicide raids or serve as cannon-fodder and decoys when their respective spells are available. Werewolves and Shadow Demons have the ability to regenerate and share the same general time frame. Werewolves are created by transforming a normal unit with a "Permanent Unit Enchantment," Lycanthropy. Shadow Demons are more expensive and versatile units. Demons are called only in combat through the Summon Demons ability possessed by Demon Lords; they therefore act as part of the overall combat strength of this high-grade unit. 1: combat summon, disappears at end of battle. 2: created by Zombie Mastery spell. 3: summoned by Demon Lord. Undead Units Finally, Death magic offers means for normal and fantastic units to rejoin the game as Undead creatures under the wizard's control. Most methods involve slaying the unit with Life-Stealing/Create Undead Damage, a form of damage tracked separately from damage the unit has received through other sources. When a battle is concluded, the game runs through each and every dead unit on the battlefield, checking what type of damage killed that unit. If the majority of the damage that killed the unit is found to be Life Stealing Damage, and the life-stealer's side won the battle, the unit will rise again as an Undead unit, and will switch allegiance. It is now on the side of the life-stealer. For example, imagine a battle where Wraiths assault an enemy High Men Cavalry unit and completely destroy it. If the majority of the damage inflicted on the Cavalry was Life Stealing Damage from the Wraiths' attack, and the Wraiths' side went on to win this battle, then the High Men Cavalry returns as an Undead unit, serving the Wraiths' master. For this to happen, the majority of the damage must have been Life Stealing Damage. The total number of units that may be reanimated in any one battle is limited by the army stack size: 9 minus the number of victorious units surviving to the end of combat, including any members of that side Recalled from the battle. Undead are spawned following successful usage of these Death Realm effects: *Life Drain (spell) *Black Channels (spell) *Animate Dead (spell) *Create Undead (ability) *Life Steal (special attack) *Vampiric (item power) Undead units take on the following new characteristics: ; Fantastic Unit : This unit is considered a Fantastic Unit of the for most purposes, even if it was already a fantastic unit of a different magic realm. The pictured "Undead" unit enchantment icon appears in its query window along with its other listed abilities. Unlike normal sustained Unit Enchantments, it has no upkeep cost and can never be dispelled. Units bearing this ability are exceptionally vulnerable to "resist or suffer" Special Damage from Life sources, like Dispel Evil. ;Altered Upkeep : Any Normal Unit turned Undead will have its Upkeep Cost reduced to and . Any Fantastic Unit will have its Upkeep Cost multiplied by . ;Inability to Gain Experience : Undead units do not gain experience with time, nor with winning battles, though the Armsmaster ability still affects them (this is probably a bug). They retain stats gained by experience thus far, as well as their magic weapons - - if they had these. ;Unhealing : The unit does not heal naturally, and cannot be healed by any spell or abilities other than Life Steal or Regeneration. Thus Trolls are the ideal Undead servants. Unit Abilities There are several traits common to all creatures of the Death Realm, including the Undead. Unhealing * (As above) Death units do not heal naturally every overland turn. They also cannot be healed using magic spells, meaning that a Death wizard cannot support them in battle with the Priests' Healing Spell, for instance. They can only regain health through Life Steal or Regeneration. Poison Immunity * This unit cannot be hurt by Poison Damage. It will automatically pass any roll to avert such damage. Illusions Immunity * Illusion Damage inflicted on this unit does not bypass its armor. The unit gets to make its rolls as normal. * During combat, this unit will spot all enemy Invisible creatures regardless of how close they are. Those creatures become semi-visible on the screen, and may be targeted freely like any other unit. * This unit is completely immune to many Unit Curses from the realm. It either may not be targeted by such curses at all, or is simply not affected by them. Cold Immunity * This unit cannot be affected by any spell or ability that delivers Cold Damage. It will simply not receive any from such sources. Death Immunity * This unit cannot be affected by any spell or ability that causes death or fear, including most of the combat spells from the . Evil Champions Having at least one Death spellbook marks the wizard as sufficiently free of conscience to attract the attention of two high-grade Champions for the cause of evil, either as random petitioners when he qualifies, or by summoning. Item Crafting Ranks in this color unlock the following spell-like effects that may be employed in Item Crafting, to augment heroes' gear. Spell knowledge allows combat spells to be Charged into an item. | style="padding:24px;" | |} Death Encounter Zones Creatures of appear as foes in Encounter Zones very frequently. Developing counters against Death units' great numbers and special attacks can pay off. The world generator has a chance creating Death units in the following zones: Every lair makes a procedural selection of guardians through what is essentially a budget. When it can afford to stock defenders at all, there will typically be one or more higher-end units of the lair's Realm (this is the creature sighted by scouts who peek into the lair), attended by a lesser unit type. The Ancient Temple, Fallen Temple, and Ruins will harbor creatures most of the time. The Tower of Wizardry can have anything, but is twice as likely to roll Death as any other realm; thus it, also, has a one-in-three chance. Any unconquered lair with Death creatures can eject Rampaging Monsters. This is a randomly-generated Death group that has nothing to do with the contents of the lair; rather, its overall strength will correspond with the number of game turns elapsed. Death Lairs and Rampaging Monster groups assemble creatures at point-costs shown in the chart below. Note the low cost of some Death units. A large horde of these units can go on the rampage very early! It can pose an existential threat if it decides to target your Fortress. Note that some units cost the same number of "mana" points to spawn. Inside an Encounter Zone, the world generator favors Ghouls over Demons, and Night Stalkers over Werewolves. Demons and Werewolves may only appear in a lair harboring the corresponding favored unit, respectively the Ghouls and Night Stalkers, as primary defenders, at which point they might make an appearance as the secondary defending unit type. In practice, Werewolves are very rarely seen in the game, a single Demon alongside Ghouls is moderately common. Related Treasure ;Items Unlocked :Death Spellbooks do not unlock any items. Most pre-defined Magical Items demand the seeker possess certain spellbook ranks in order to show up in Treasure. The spell-like effects that appear on these items, such as those listed in the Item Crafting section, are the cause for these requirements. However, the spell ranks required by the pre-defined items do not necessarily match their powers, and Death is not required for a single one of them. The "Supreme Shield of Death," for instance, requires spell ranks and . :To acquire any unusual items, the Death wizard must hope that a Merchant comes to call. It may be wise to hoard . ;Finding Death Spellbooks :Any spellbooks found in a Dungeon, Abandoned Keep, or Ruins will always be Death. Spellbooks found in Towers, Mysterious Caves, and Monster Lairs have a 20 percent chance of being Death. It does not matter what realm of creatures actually inhabits the location and guards the books. Related Wizard Skills Infernal Power Infernal Power requires ranks in Death magic and costs 2 picks. It increases the power and the pacifying effects obtained from Shrines, Temples, Parthenons, and Cathedrals by 50%. Combining the retort with produces an extraordinary amount of . Divine Power may be found by Death wizards and yields exactly the same effect as Infernal Power. The two retorts together do not exhibit cumulative effects. Conjurer Conjurer has no prerequisites and costs 1 pick. It reduces the casting and upkeep for all Summoning Spells by 25%, and boosts research on these spells by 25%. It lowers overhead without the need to take so many ranks in this realm. Channeler Channeler has no prerequisites and costs 2 picks. It removes the distance modifier in combat spellcasting and reduces all spell maintenance by half. This retort loses momentum if mana becomes plentiful but is very well-suited to the Death Realm's emphasis on fantastic armies and combat spells. Category:Death Category:Magical Realms